The year started out pretty well, the first couple of days were pretty slow. We didn’t have much to do. Felix, Pablo and I visited a few families to see if their terrain was ready for us to start working on or not. A couple of families were ready so we set forms for their foundations. On Monday the 7th we started working with our first Vision Team of 2008. We set a mobile floor, for a one room house, in the morning and made some panels in the afternoon. On Tuesday we went to San Pedro Mirador and poured a foundation for a two room house. (The small houses are 16ft. X 12ft. with one door and two windows, the two room houses are 24ft. X 12ft. divided into two 12ft. X 12ft. rooms. The two room house is actually set on a foundation that is 24ft. X 20ft. so we end up with an 8ft. X 24ft. covered corridor; it in essence becomes a third room.) Do to a lack of running water it took us a couple hours longer than usual to finish. We started at 8:30am and finished at almost 3pm. On Wednesday we built the house we’d set the floor for on Monday, it takes about half a day to build the smaller houses (house #1 of 2008). Thursday we built some more panels and had the house blessing in the afternoon. The house blessing is an opportunity for the Vision Teams to ask the family questions and offer their congratulations and well wishes. That afternoon we had their despedida, sending off, as they were going to New Hope for the last day of their trip. The Vision Team was from Minnesota and had a lady in her 60’s and a sophomore in high school. They were a lot of fun to work with and they worked hard. Friday we checked on some more terrain then went for a tour of the area just north of Antigua. During the weekend I did my laundry, had a BBQ and played some ultimate Frisbee, updated my blog and watched some NFL play-off games.
On Monday the 14th Chicho, Pablo and I went to the school in San Juan del Obispo to help them disassemble and move some classrooms that Common Hope had built for them several years ago. We were moving them to a different part of the property. At the start of the day we had a few teenaged students helping us but soon it was just the three of us and Hubo, a teacher that works at the project and in San Juan, dismantling the buildings. It took us all day but we finished taking them apart. Tuesday we set level-lines for a small house in San Gaspar and made some extra floor tiles in case one broke. Wednesday morning Pablo and I started setting the mobile floor and Chicho joined us part of the way through. In the afternoon our second Vision Team of the year showed up, from IL. The group that I worked with in the afternoon to deliver the panels and materials to San Gaspar consisted of a Youth Minister, a Retired Gynecologist, a Banker, and a Psychiatrist/ Dean of Students at Northwestern Medical School. After delivering the materials we came back to the project and made more panels. The next morning we assembled the house in San Gaspar and that afternoon we cleaned the slab and set the forms to make more floor planchas. One of the other members of the team was Sue, the Sr. Pastor at Hinsdale UCC in IL. We had some great conversations about Colorado; for many years she was a pastor in Greeley, CO. We talked about backpacking and hiking and all of the other outdoor activities that we had participated in throughout CO. Friday morning we mixed 12 wheelbarrows of sand with 12 bags of cement and 12 wheelbarrows or little rocks with a lot of water to fill the forms we set the day before. That Saturday I didn’t do a whole lot and in the evening I met up with the Vision Team to have dinner at a place called Don Rodrigo’s. The food was great, I had the salmon, and we had some great conversation about all sorts of stuff. On Sunday I cleaned around the house and then went to Monoloco to watch the Patriots beat the Chargers in the play-offs. Sunday nights at the local Irish pub, Reilly’s, they have pub-quiz, so we decided to give our collective knowledge a test. We didn’t do great, but we weren’t last ;)
Every time I go out I have the opportunity to meet someone interesting and this night was no different. I met a young woman, Amber, who was born in Japan and grew up in the states and currently living in L.A. She was just traveling and having some fun but was also looking for places to pursue her dream. She wants to find some blend of working with computers and modeling to benefit third world countries. We talked for a long time and I was really impressed and encouraged her as much as I could to continue in her pursuit.
Now Monday the 21st we had 2 Vision Teams at the same time. I spent the morning working with the group from IL at the project while Pablo and Felix worked with our new group from MN doing a foundation in San Miguel. Tuesday the IL group headed to New Hope and we started building a house with the MN group. By the end of the day we were pretty much ready for the roof.
Tuesday night my roommate Pamela was sad so we talked and I got to see some more stuff about Guatemala that just doesn’t make sense. One of her friends and his girlfriend had been carjacked/ kidnapped couple of weeks earlier and had agreed to help the police to find the perpetrators. After a few weeks the police successfully located and arrested them. The following day, (Tue.) Jan 22nd, there was an article in the paper detailing the incident and arrests. Nothing strange in that except that along with the detailed description of the events came a detailed description of the two victims—Pamela’s friends—and their addresses. Due to this her friend was going to have to move out of the country as he had become a target for the gangs as a snitch. Guatemala has many stories such as this that are just part of the reason it has been stuck in the state it is for so long.
Anyway, Wednesday morning we put the roof on the house in San Pedro Mirador and in the afternoon we had the house blessing and the despedida for the MN group. Thursday morning we went to visit some families in San Cristobal El Cerrito (the little hill). From where the road ends to the houses is about 1 or 1.5 km, it’s a hike, a lot of it uphill… The visits took almost all morning and in the afternoon, Pablo and I didn’t want to do anything so we just wandered around the project visiting people. Esteban, one of the maintenance employees, was doing some welding and I stopped to chat with him. He offered to teach me how to weld and I agreed, so after a quick intro and some practice I was successfully arc-welding stuff. Friday morning I had to be at work at 6 am because we had staff training in the city. There 30 of us total from Antigua and New Hope and our day was spent talking about a variety of things surrounding stereotypes and discrimination. Saturday I did some laundry and updated my blog. When I got home Britt and Carlos were going to walk to some ruins near-by, so I joined them. We climbed around on them and talked for a while before heading into town to see Pamela at Café No Sè. There I met a young man, Paul, who was a Major in the Air Force before he finished active duty and joined the Peace Corps. We talked about a lot of stuff including his time at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs.
Sunday morning Bob picked me up and several other people and we headed into the city on our way to climb a volcano. Bob and I have decided to climb as many of the volcanoes as we can, there are 20-some. On our way we stopped at the Gym where Bob coaches gymnastics. He volunteered at the project for two years and is now living and working in the city. We played on all of the apparatuses and in the giant pit filled with foam blocks. WE then headed on to find and climb Tecamburro (Tay-com-boo-rrow). We found the volcano where it was supposed to be, thankfully it hadn’t moved, and stopped first to see the acidic-sulfury lake next to it called Ixpaco (Eesh-pok-o). We took some photos and found a Lemon tree then climbed to the top of the volcano. On the way up we found a vine that we decided to swing on, and it provided much fun and enjoyment even after it broke while I was swinging on it… On our way back down we temporarily lost one of the group and spent some time looking for her, but she wasn’t far away and the day ended successfully.
This was January…, there are a lot of pictures to see… check them out :)
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18432&l=a6878&id=752630746
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18442&l=40772&id=752630746
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=18444&l=9a812&id=752630746
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